On What We Choose To Keep
Something struck me as I moved to a new home with the new year. Entering a new year, like moving to a new home, often inspires me to evaluate what does and does not go with me. I think of myself as relentlessly practical about that. Anything not used in the last year becomes fair … Continue reading “On What We Choose To Keep”
Anything But Gone: On An Advent with Grief
“Who was it?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know if I ever knew.” A ceramic Christmas tree sat on my bookshelf. I’d just switched it on, and its multi-colored lights glowed. That little tree had been part of Christmastime as far back into my childhood as I could remember. It wasn’t … Continue reading “Anything But Gone: On An Advent with Grief”
In the Wake of Pain and the Gold of Care
“How’s your back doing?” my father would ask with a hope-you’re-okay smile from across the dinner table. He struggled to remember many things during the last years of his life, but he remembered that my back was hurting. Perhaps he worried, knowing at his age how pain can accumulate and weigh us down. I felt … Continue reading “In the Wake of Pain and the Gold of Care”
Claiming a Fast in Pandemic Time: On How We Carry What We Miss
“Before the pandemic, the scent of warm, yeasty bread would have filled the chapel. Someone from our school’s café would have walked down in the hour or so before the service to leave a fresh-baked loaf wrapped in a white towel on the table. We’d have smelled it through all the prayers, music, and spoken … Continue reading “Claiming a Fast in Pandemic Time: On How We Carry What We Miss”
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